Bulgarian authorities have summoned Serbia’s Ambassador to express their dissatisfaction after Serbian authorities have prevented a convoy of extremist Bulgarian nationalists to enter Serbia in order to protest against the 91st anniversary of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine which awards the area around the city of Bosiljgrad to Serbia.

“A deep dissatisfaction was expressed as to why the Bulgarian nationals were not allowed to enter Serbian territory,” Bulgaria’s deputy in the Foreign Ministry, Konstantin Dimitrov, is quoted as saying.

“We were given a late explanation that there were possibilities of violence. We expressed incomprehension as to why were our nationals stopped at the Bulgarian-Serbian border without reason,” Dimitrov is quoted as saying.

Bulgarian Ambassador to Serbia says that he is writing a note to the Serbian government demanding an explanation as to why Serbia denied entrance to Bulgarian extremists.

The action by Dimitrov is followed after Bulgaria’s extremist nationalist Volen Siderov has threatened to gather his likeminded extremists and use them to block off Bulgaria’s border with Serbia unless the government of Bulgaria condemned Serbia’s actions.

Volen Siderov

The convoy of the extremist Bulgarians say that they wanted to take part in a protest by the ethnic Bulgarians in Bosiljgrad who gathered on the streets claiming that Serbia is violating their ethnic rights.

German Deutsche Welle says that Bosiljgrad is often a target for Bulgarian nationalists who seek to expand Bulgaria’s borders into Serbia and take over Macedonia.

“If anyone wants to plant a seed of hate, this is not the place for him, nor do the people of Bosiljgrad want that,” says Vladimir Zaharijev, President of the Bosiljgrad municipality.

Ethnic Bulgarian former journalist, Vane Velinov, says that the Bulgarian minority is completely equal and that “anyone can express themselves as Bulgarian, to speak Bulgarian, to study in Bulgarian. No one is denied religion. Who wants to go to church can”.

Official Bulgarian government has expresses full support for Serbia’s EU integration but Bulgaria’s nationalist leader Volen Siderov wants the Bulgarian government to set conditions before giving its support for Serbia’s EU entry. This Bulgarian official incident with Serbia is seen by some as Bulgaria’s official endorsement of Siderov’s policy of setting conditions to Serbia.

Earlier this year, Siderov’s followers have organized protests in front of the Serbian Embassy in Bulgaria.

Regarding Macedonia, Siderov says that “Historically, this [Macedonia] territory and population belongs to the Bulgarian nation” and says that “Bulgaria should have set more conditions on Macedonia”.

In October, Sidorov blasted Turkey saying “I would like to tell [the government] that you are wrong when you assume that Turkey comes here with friendly intentions. It is a mistake to make compromises with Ankara”.

Sidorov has 21 Representatives inside the Bulgarian parliament of 240.

Serbia has a Muslim minority that identifies with Turkey and may pressure Belgrade to do more for the Muslims in Bulgaria especially after recent warming of relations between Serbia and Turkey.

November 30, 2010
SERBIANNA

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